The gods, Nature, GOD and Yahweh

The gods, Nature, GOD and Yahweh: A Witcan Perspective

Ly. Leananshae

Regarding the gods and goddesses of mythology:

Within the teachings of mainstream Wicca, we were taught, and most of us came to believe, that the gods and godesses were supernatural/preternatural beings who inhabited the Ether, whose job it seemed was to collectively keep order (Cosmos) through an assortment of checks and balances (Chaos) with conscious, sentient intention and directed will. We understood them to be superior intelligences, the masters and mistresses of a multitude of forces and dynamics, of matter and causation, and we revered and invoked them in our traditions and practices. And with new, improved motivation, Witcans still do.

Contrary to what many of our Wiccan elders reported about the nature of the workings of the Omniverse, Witcan scholarship debunks some of their assertions and assumptions. We are lucky to be members of a modern society that has at its fingertips the work and evidence offered by such disciplines as cultural anthropology, history, physics, meteorology, earth science, astronomy, chemistry, biology, etc., that these ideas are erroneous and based in superstition. We have the benefit in this era of an understanding of, for example, the workings of weather, and thus no longer wonder what the origins of lightning and thunder are. And in that knowledge, we understand that lightning and thunder are not expressions of an angry god. Not adding that updated information to the lexicon of our traditions and practices is an act of self-imposed ignorance, which has no place in a rigorous study of Witca.

In lieu of the old paradigms that portray the gods as the Royal Elite of Creation, Witcans can assess the role mythology plays in culture, that is, the heartbeat of communities of men, as in the community of Seekers calling themselves Witcans. Mythology offers us a language of sorts, a way to express the workings of the Omniverse that finds its roots in the attempts our ancestors made to pass down their advancements in understanding their world. And this language extends beyond a grasp of mythological namesakes for the elements and dynamics we see all around us. We also find bits and pieces of old information in the terms all neo-pagans use to describe their practices. For instance, the designation of the four Elements -- Air, Earth, Water and Fire -- and examining their origins affords us a view on ancient teachings in general.

Let’s take a closer look at the “element” of Air as an exemplar:

In ancient Greece, some dedicated scholars and proto-scientists devoted their careers to the study of the basic components of the world around them. One aspect of their work was that they sought to describe the world in terms that divided what all people readily sense into just two manageable groups, and eventually came to view everything around them as belonging to one of two categories: Something or Nothing. In modern terms we might refer to these two hierarchies as Matter and Vacuum, respectively, and as far as we know at this point in history, the ancient Greeks were pretty much spot-on in this deduction. Next, using the observation that Nothing was the spaces between all the Something, they understandably made the assumption that air was a perfect description of those spaces between things, as it is exactly what we “don’t see” when we look around us. They had no way of knowing that air was made up of gases which are far from being “nothing”.  And none of them had any way of experimenting with true vacuums. And would they think to pump air out of perfectly sealed vessels anyway? What would be the point? So, it came to be that the “knowledge” that Air was synonymous with Nothing was forged and subsequently passed down for millennia.

Now, we jump to the recent past, say to the beginning of the 20th century or so. Early modern occultists were busy researching ancient “knowledge”, looking for the basis on which to found the new movements in Spiritualism, Wicca, Druidry, Anthroposophy, Gnoeticism and so on. And they were making connections between old ideas and the modern urge to explore what they called the Mysteries. They were looking for Magick and connection to divinity, and it seemed to many of them that their answers could readily be found in the lore left behind by the ancients. Plus, it was titillating to think that old manuscripts might hold the key, if only the researcher could decipher their deeper meanings. But that’s another subject -- related, but not important for our purposes here. So, somewhere along the line (and if you’re interested, you can go and research the lineage from then to now)  the founders of modern Wicca adopted the four Elements we teach and learn today. But let’s think on it for a moment: It is one thing to go on using a system of describing the Omniverse, but it is a whole other thing to continue ascribing faulty science to that system. Yes, Witcans still call Air when casting East -- just as their Wiccan brethren do. But as Witcans, we are benefitted by the understanding that “air” in this context means, “The Nothing”, and we further understand that “The Nothing” describes everything that is not made up of Matter (Earth).

Our enlightened perspective of the Element of Air casts light on how we might view the pantheons of gods and goddesses. We are not bound to remain sightless in this matter. Tradition is a wonderful thing, but tradition without discernment and innovation is a dead-end. When we pass down the false idea that the god/desses are “real”, as in, personalities which take interest in the daily lives of individual men, we cheat ourselves and our students out of a deeper understanding of how they fit in the whole schematic of Life. And not having a reality-based anchor in knowledge dooms the next generation of Seekers to either study falsehoods or abandon the study altogether once they discern for themselves that something like the gods of modern Wicca are shadow puppets meant to distract us from a serious exploration of Magick and connection with Divinity. So, in an effort to thwart potential disillusionment and to offer the steadfast Seeker who trusts his teachers implicitly, Witca offers an alternative: Learn the mainstream Wiccan perspective, and then, if it leaves you empty or lost, reach out to modern scholarly works for your answers. If you can’t believe that Zeus is the cause of lightning and thunder, pick up a modern meteorological textbook, or visit the NOAA National Weather Service’s webpage explaining lightning and thunder and learn the reality.

So, what do we do after we’ve effectively thrown away so much of our basic Wiccan heritage, when we no longer see the pantheons of gods and goddesses as keepers of Nature and benefactors of men who form allegiances with them? It is precisely because of this potential sense of loss -- this feeling that when we walk away from the precepts that are at the foundation of a culture, we are no longer a member of that culture -- that so many Wiccans opt to remain ensconced in the mythologies offered up by their elders. These are the same reasons so many Christians do not rebel -- they value their place in their religious communities more than they value their freedom to reject some obvious discrepancies in the ideas foisted on the faithful. It is for this need to belong -- to be a part of, not apart from -- among other factors, that Witca does not merely cast out every single component of our heritage in Wicca as we discover evidence of error, superstition, ignorance, falsehood or discrepancy. We maintain the labels -- like the names of the god/desses and the references of the four Elements -- but reassign their meaning, and usually those new, improved meanings have something to do with metaphor. In the case of the god/desses, we recognize them as anthropomorphic personifications of the components of Nature. When we revere them in rite and spellcraft, we hold in our minds the reality of our relationship and place within Nature and we seek to find communion with those parts of Nature that we feel a need to work with in some way.

This leads us to consider what relationship men can have with Nature. Well, it’s simple enough to see that we are part of Nature, that we are effected by its workings, that we are as individuals pretty tiny and relatively “insignificant” in the whole scheme of the Omniverse. And we could stop there… if we were not Magickal people seeking communion with the Divine.  

Which leads us to consider the nature of Nature:

With the science available to us at this point in time, Witcans can see that Nature is a huge, impersonal chemistry set full of dynamics and forces traveling through the Omniverse with its own non-human “goals” and criteria for continuing to exist. Nature, and all its component parts, is imbued with Purpose. And it is innately free to follow its Purpose without interference from any outside force... again, as are all of its component parts. In Witca, we designate the combination of Purpose, Freedom and Meaning with the single word, Spirit. The Spirit of anything is beyond measurement or discernment by any sense or tool. And from Spirit springs Love. Some would say that Love can be likened to such forces as magnetism and gravity. Yet, unlike gravity and magnetism, Love is undetectable outside of sentience. And here we find a clue to our relationship with Nature.

Love is the last Mystery left untouched by science and metaphysics alike. I do not speak of romantic love nor the worried love of parenthood. I don’t even speak of the love (note: lowercase “L”) that is relegated to emotion, for emotions are clearly a byproduct of brain chemistry and can be explained easily enough. The Love I’m referring to is an appreciation for beauty, the Love of existence for existence’s own sake, the dogged pursuit of right use of will, an unending search for personal evolution, the care men have for strangers in trouble, the concern one feels for a lost kitten. It is magnanimous selflessness, charity without ulterior motivation, perfect compassion, anonymous altruism, unheralded heroism, courage, devotion, loyalty and so on. And Love is the wellspring of our innate Purposes and Freedoms.

Because Nature is an impersonal “machine” driven to seek its own form of existence outside of a care for the welfare of individual components of itself -- much like we care nothing for the welfare of the individual cells in our bodies -- we come to see that we are pretty powerless to alter its course. It does not Love us. We can, however, tune into its rhythms and patterns, just as our cells monitor the overall condition of the body, and seek out “the gods” within its grand matrix of matrixes, pinpointing where there may be some areas which we can learn to work within. But Nature is neither ally nor foe. And it will not warp itself to accommodate our puny wants and needs. It can only be “asked” to flow in our direction the energy we request… if we learn how to do so. This is a standard by which all effective Witcan Magick must be in accordance with from the onset.

So, if the gods are descriptions of Nature, and Nature cares nothing for us, where lies Divinity? Does Divinity even really exist? Well, we’ve established the reality of Love (remember: not love), and for now we think of Love as the last Mystery, unscrutinized by science and metaphysics alike. Is it too far-fetched to make a tenuous connection between the origins of Love and the seat of the Divine?

Now we are ready to discuss GOD:

Sherlock Holmes once said, "...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Well, as compelling as that statement is, we must consider that the detective does not take into account that he can never be certain, until a case comes to a conclusion, whether or not he had access to all of the evidence he needed to distill “whatever remains” into an irrefutable solution. If he has nothing to send him to the real criminal’s door, he’ll never end up there. This is the cautionary note to what I’m about to propose.

It must be becoming apparent that, within Witcan study, we are prone to re-assign labels with new and improved meanings -- as is the case with the Witcan version of the Elements. And using Holmes’ adage with the caveat that we acknowledge that all the evidence is certainly not available at this time, we can nonetheless ponder the nature of Divinity, with the shreds of evidence at our disposal, and make our best effort to at least lay a foundation for future generations to add to or amend.

At this writing, the evidence points to the existence of an intelligence beyond Nature -- superior to it, if you will -- which holds the keys to the existence of Purpose, Freedom, Meaning and so forth. And all investigation has led to assigning that intelligence with at least two names, each synonymous with the other.  They are Love and GOD, and thus… GOD = Love and Love = GOD.

Now, before your witchy radar starts sounding the Red Alert, take a breath, pause and reflect on some key points with me for a moment. We have nothing to either fear nor hate in the word GOD. Yes, it is a term used predominantly by our unofficial nemesis, Judaeo-Christian society, a culture we find ourselves hemmed-in by. Yes, much harm has been done throughout history in the name of “God” and all self-respecting neo-pagans have some sort of reservation concerning this tainted word.  But there’s the rub. If we speak of an ultimate Divinity, we enter the same realm which houses the Judaeo-Christian concept of the Divine, and, no matter how much we dislike the idea, we are forced to push up our shirtsleeves and deal with this uncomfortable proximity with the world’s big religions. So, do we forsake a search for the Divine merely because the big religions got there first and now the subject is off limits? That thinking makes compliant followers of us all. Yes, so far, neo-pagans have been universally obedient about leaving the definition of GOD in the hands of Christianity and their ilk. When we do as they tell us, when we accept their ideas and definitions in spiritual matters, when we relinquish the right to define GOD as we see fit…. we are in effect being good little sheep like the rest of their kind. No religion owns the trademark or copyright on the word GOD. Just as they could not hang onto the meaning of “witch”, we can wrest the meaning of GOD from them as well. And for the Witcan, it is a duty, not just an intellectual exercise.

So, plainly, Witca differentiates between “the gods” and “GOD” and does not find Divinity in Nature either (uh-oh! Heretical thinking, eh?).

To reveiw:

• GOD = Love = The Divine = The Last Mystery (in any order)
• Nature = a huge, impersonal chemistry set full of dynamic forces imbued with Purpose
• the gods = anthropomorphic personifications of components in Nature invented by humans to explain how Nature works.

A final note concerning Yahweh, the god of Judaeo-Christianity:

Yahweh is as “real” as Wodin, Persephone, Isis or Pele. He is merely a god, not GOD. He is a member of the Judaeo-Christian pantheon which also includes Jesus Christ, Mary, the Saints, the Apostles and the Devil. Can we revere him as we might some other god? Well, certainly, we might find some aspect of Nature that we feel shares some characteristics with this petty tyrant. But, for my tastes, and because there seems to be plenty of Judaeo-Christians already groveling at his feet at this time, I think I can find better god aspects to whom I can offer my devotions. But that’s just my personal take on the matter. Do as you will...